Coming out of the starting gates last season The CW series “The Flash,” became a hit for the network by combining a well executed story and a winning and charismatic cast. In it’s sophomore outing the show’s tightened its formula and produced a series that will earn it credibility with Fanboys and Fangirls, while adding just enough pathos to retain non-comic book fans. They pulled that formula off flawlessly in the episode entitled “The Reverse-Flash Returns,” as a face that “Team-Flash” thought they’d seen the last of came from literally from out of nowhere. The show-runners added in some heartache and some bonding winding up with a satisfying hour.

Barry Allen’s heartbroken over his splitting with his girlfriend Patty Spivot, who told him at the conclusion of the previous episode she decided to leave him and “go to CSI school” in Midway City. Allen realizes that a huge part of the reason she’s leaving’s due to his reluctance to reveal to her that he’s the Scarlet Speedster. However Harry Wells convinced him that if he let’s Patty get close to him she becomes a target for Zoom.

Keeping his mind occupied The Flash becomes the ultimate Good Samaritan, speeding all over Central City and performing good deeds. Suddenly Cisco gets an alarm, an out-of-control chemical truck’s speeding through the city. Flash gets to the truck and realizes it’s set-up to crash and the explosion it would cause could take out a city-block. The Flash sees a tire-iron in the cab and removes all the tires on the eighteen-wheeler and it harmlessly skids off the road.

As the superhero discusses what just occurred with some uniformed cops, we see Eobard Thawne hiding in the background. He summons his hand-held computer/A.I. system Gideon who asks Thawne if his trip’s a success and the Reverse-Flash breaks into a broad grin. He says he thinks so as he’s just determined The Flash’s point of origin, now he just needs to find a way back to his time period. If you’re late to the party, Thawne hails from our distant future about three centuries from now and he ceased to exist when his ancestor Detective Eddie Thawne killed himself in the first season finale. So how is he back in Central City? We’ll get to that soon.

Harry and Cisco are sitting in command central when Jay Garrick and Caitlin Snow enter as Garrick’s shooting daggers at Wells. Caitlin tells them they just discovered Meta-Human Russell Glosson dead in his cell according to the scanner he died of an acute brain aneurysm. Garrick believes that Wells’ maybe behind the mysterious and sudden death and though Wells realizes Garrick believes that, he refuses to admit he actually did kill Glosson and extract brain-tissue from him in the process.

We watch an uncomfortable scene play out between Patty and Barry, as she doesn’t want to leave and he wants her to stay but refuses to acknowledge that as it would stand in her way of leaving. (Young Love.) Iris comes in hearing the tail end of the conversation and tells Barry to stop Patty from leaving, but Barry says Patty’s wanted to be a CSI all her life. Joe then walks in and tells Iris that her mother Francine hasn’t got long to live and if she wants to say goodbye she should do it soon.

Cisco tells Wells that he needs his help in figuring out how to harness his “Vibe” powers and Harry agrees and tells him to meet him in the time-vault, the room that Wells/Thawne used to monitor the future from last season. Ramon enters the room which he dreads and starts calling for Wells but he realizes he’s alone.

Then Wells terrifies him by jumping out of the dark wearing the Reverse-Flash uniform. Harry tells him he realized that Ramon’s “Vibe” powers engage when he gets a rush of dopamine to the brain and the easiest way to do that’s through fear, then he grabs Cisco by the throat. Wells’ theory proves correct as Cisco goes into “Vibe” mode and he actually sees that Eobard Thawne’s in Central City and at Mercury Labs. However everybody’s obvious question’s how could Thawne be in Central City when they watched him disintegrate?

Harry says that the Eobard Thawne’s at Mercury Labs is actually a “Time-Remnant” and he then illustrates his conclusion with three circles. The circle to the left represents 2015 when Thawne ceased to exist, the middle circle represents the present and the circle on the right’s the future where Eobard Thawne’s eventually born. The Thawne that’s currently in Central City’s an earlier version of the man they knew, before he even killed Nora Allen. However because Barry’s mom’s death a fixed point in our timeline, stopping Thawne at this point wouldn’t prevent Nora’s death.

Barry arrives at Mercury Labs just after the Reverse-Flash knocks out two security guards and tells the Lab’s founder Tina McGee she’s coming with him. The Flash shows up and in shock he looks at his enemy and shouts Eobard Thawne, the man from the future’s shocked that The Flash knows his identity. Barry says you’re dead and Thawne says that’s good to know and even better, now he’s got the coordinate’s for The Flash’s time-period and says the speedster will soon be dead. He then lands a right on Allen’s jaw knocking him to the ground and when he gets up Thawne and McGee are gone.

Iris and Francine have their meeting in Francine’s hospital room and Iris tells her mother she forgives herb then has to leave the room as she breaks down into tears. Francine told Iris that Wally’s not been around to visit as he’s angry that she’s dying. Iris goes to her brother’s garage and tries to convince him to go see his mother and tell her he loves her before it’s too late.

Barry returns to STAR Labs and tells “Team-Flash,” that Thawne escaped and kidnapped Tina McGee. Wells realizes there’s only one man they can turn to, Cisco Ramon. Harry creates a pair of goggles that will harness Cisco’s “Vibe” power and he’ll soon access it at will. Once again Harry’s theory turns into reality as Cisco sees all sorts of memories and visions in front of him. Wells gets him to focus first on Thawne and then on him and McGee and Ramon witnesses Thawne killing McGee and escaping through some time-accelerator into the future.

Another uncomfortable scene between Patty and Barry as she basically tells him she’ll stay if he asks her to and he says he doesn’t want to cause her any regrets. Then we get an uncomfortable scene between Caitlin and Jay Garrick as she tells him she’s looked all over for his doppelgänger to try to save his life with a cell transplant. Garrick tells Snow he’ll explain everything to her the following day in a nearby park.

Wells and Allen figure out that Thawne had McGee build the accelerator out of tachyons and that they can detect them with their instruments had the machine been used. No readings show up on their scanners and they realize that Cisco’s actually seen into the future and they have 3:52 to stop the Reverse-Flash from killing Dr. McGee. At exactly 9:52 pm the tachyon levels are detectable and The Flash traces it to the source before Thawne can kill McGee. Catching his enemy by surprise he knocks him into a wall, tells McGee to run and destroys the machine and Thawne’s way home.

Thawne tells The Flash he’ll find another way home and Allen says he’ll need to get through him first. Thawne then challenges his enemy to catch him and takes off with The Flash in pursuit. Allen catches the Reverse-Flash and then starts pummeling him, Joe tells him not to kill him but to bring him to STAR Labs.

Thawne’s now in the cell at STAR Labs that they held Wells/Thawne in last season, he can’t phase out of the cell or escape in any fashion. Barry says he’s going down to talk with him and Harry tells him he’ll do no such thing as it will mess up the timeline in a major way. Allen agrees not to tempt fate and takes a phone-call. Cisco’s nose starts to bleed, a situation that any fan of “LOST” realizes is a very bad sign when dealing with the space-time continuum. Ramon passes it off as inconvenience, but we can see the look in Harry’s eyes he knows troubles brewing.

Cisco goes to the cell asks Thawne how he gets his suit to come out of his ring? The man from the future realizes that Cisco and he know each other in his future and that Ramon knows him very well. Cisco then tells him he wanted to inform the Reverse-Flash that he tracked him down and played a big role in his capture. Then he tells Thawne that he gave Ramon the power and tells him to chew on that while he’s in his cell. Cisco then leaves but his nose starts bleeding again.

Barry decides to pay Thawne a visit but he keeps his appearance hidden from his enemy. He asks Thawne just why he despises him so much. The man from the future said he was obsessed with him and wanted to be him so badly, he duplicated the accident and acquired the Scarlet Speedster’s powers. However once he became a speedster he had an epiphany, that his fate was to be the Flash’s mortal enemy and he did the opposite of what the original speedster did. For every person The Flash saved the Reverse-Flash killed just because he couldn’t be him. Caitlin’s voice comes over the intercom and tells Barry they need him immediately.

Allen finds Joe, Caitlin and Harry surrounding Cisco’s whose going through a bout of seizures. Joe and Wells struggle to hold Ramon still while Snow injects him with a sedative, the seizures cease but he starts to phase in and out making him see-through. Harry shows he’s actually human as he gets nervous and talks rapidly telling Barry that Cisco’s being effected by the change in the timeline. He tells Allen the only way to save Cisco’s by freeing Thawne and Barry has to push him through the time barrier back to his time period.

Wells releases Thawne from the cell at gunpoint and the Reverse-Flash asks Harry who he is and Wells responds nobody of consequence. Eobard realizes that Harry just told him an outright lie and lets the scientist know that. Wells then escorts the man from the future to the area that he’ll depart from.

Harry pulls Allen aside and tells him that this is the Reverse-Flash’s “Origin-Story.” This moment’s when he learns Barry’s identity and about STAR Labs and about Earth-Prime’s Harrison Wells. He tells Barry he can’t change any of that but he’s got the chance to save his friend’s life. Barry nods solemnly and then goes to Thawne who tells The Flash that he’s won yet again. Barry derisively informs him that he’s going to win in the end and that’s the only battle that counts. The pair speed away and we watch Barry nudge Thawne across the time-barrier and back to his time-period.

Turns out Patty Spivot’s a Hell of a detective as she determined by reading Barry’s incident reports on cases The Flash got involved in, that Allen’s indeed The Flash. She calls Joe on it and he tries his best to fib but she knows he’s lying. West tells Barry whose upset and still tells Joe he can’t admit it to her for fear of her safety. Barry goes to talk with her and she tells him she knows and realizes why he hid it from her. Just admit it and she’ll stay, he say’s he’s not The Flash.

Turns out that Garrick does have a doppelgänger on Earth-Prime, however his mother died in childbirth and he got adopted and has a different name. Jay then tells Caitlin that his DNA got altered when he became a speedster so the only way he can survive is for them to capture Zoom. Snow tells him they’ll do it.

Wally comes to visit Iris at Joe’s house and tells her he’s decided to take her advice and see his mom and his sister tells him she’s proud of him and his decision. Wally then asks if Iris will come with him to the hospital and she smiles and says she’d love to and they leave the house to visit their mother.

Joe and Barry talk about Patty being on the train to Midway City and West tells Barry that with all the great things he can do as The Flash, it takes sacrifice as well. Barry’s phone rings and Patty calls from the train and says there’s a man in the car with a gun, Allen says he’ll get her some help and The Flash arrives in the train-car asking if everybody’s okay. Patty stands up and says she’s sorry it was a false-alarm, Barry slows down enough that she can recognize that he’s in the suit. He says he just wanted to make sure everything’s okay before he leaves and she nods her head. As The Flash exits the train we hear Patty say goodbye to Barry.

The new year started out on a sour note in Central City as all the characters on The CW series “The Flash,” faced mental and physical anguish in this first episode after the show’s Christmas hiatus. We watched two romances suffer major setbacks, Joe and Iris West’s relationship with Wally West get off to a rocky start and Cisco Ramon alerting “Team-Flash” of a meta-human he’s tracked for a long time.

If that’s not enough for you a specter still hovers over STAR Labs that’s got everybody in a constant state of dread. If you’re wondering what’s the identity of that harbinger of doom, allow Harry Wells to refresh your memory as he asked at one point during the evening “Do you remember ZOOM?”

The cutesy voiceover from Barry Allen didn’t set the tone for the rest of the hour. Our hero informs us that even things we take for granted like boy meets girl becomes complicated when you’ve got superpowers. Barry’s running late for a date at a fancy restaurant with Patty Spivot and the roses that he’s brought for her pay the price for his acceleration as they burst into flame before he can hand them to her.

After they laugh over the faux pas, Barry looks Patty in the eye and tells her he’s felt unlucky his whole life. When she asks him how he feels now he says like he got struck by lightning twice and they embrace and kiss. The moment’s spoiled as a blue streak appears and then we see ZOOM grab Patty by her neck into the air and speeds away.

The Flash follows them to a skyscraper and holds Spivot over the edge as she screams for help. Flash asks the demon what he wants and the evil speedster replies that everything Barry loves will be his and lets Patty drop to her death. Barry wakes up from his nightmare screaming and then realizes all’s well and he’s actually in bed with Patty, whose sleeping soundly next to him.

Joe and Iris are giving Wally the 25 cent tour of the precinct when they come across Joe’s commanding officer and introduces his son. The Captain tells Wally that his Pops is a great detective and Wally looks him in the eye and says obviously not. The Captain’s confused by Wally’s veiled shot at Joe’s tracking talents and West tries to end the moment as quickly as he can.

Joe asks Wally to come to the house for dinner and the young man says he’s got plans. West tries convincing him they’ll keep it light and they’ll get Chinese take-out. Just then some uniforms bring in a perp in handcuffs, he looks over at Wally and asks where’s your handcuffs Tail-Lights? He’s taken immediately away, but we can tell from the expression on Wally’s face the guy struck a nerve.

Joe asks Wally if he knows that guy and the young man says he just has one of those faces. He says he’s got to take off but he’ll see them both later for dinner, but he seems insincere when he says that. Iris and Joe trade confused looks and shrug to each other as Patty walks up to them.

Spivot apologizes for interrupting then asks if she can talk with one of them and of course Joe assumes its him. However she really wants to talk with Iris about Barry, so they go to CC Jitters for some coffee and girl-talk. She tells Iris she knows she and Barry got very close very quickly but he seems guarded around her. Iris says that Barry’s got a terrible habit of carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders and even burdens that aren’t connected to him. Patty says he doesn’t have to be that way with me and Iris responds tell Barry that.

Before we go on, let me step back and address an issue. I’m not a “SHIPPER,” although I’m pleased for characters to find happiness and romance, I stay away from rooting for relationships. That being said I’ve loved the character of Patty Spivot from the moment the show introduced her and I truly wanted her and Barry Allen to become a long-term match. Unfortunately as Mick Jagger sang so many years ago “You can’t always get what you want.”

Harry Wells is doing calculations on a white-board and realizes the formula he’s attempting to create is flawed and he starts throwing a hissy-fit and flings stuff around the lab. Cisco runs into the lab and treats Wells like a petulant child screaming No, this is unacceptable. You do not get to fling other people’s stuff when you’re angry. Wells stares him in the eye and throws more stuff on the floor.

After Ramon tidies up he looks at the board and asks what it is and Harry responds failed answers. Cisco says perhaps he’s asking the wrong questions. He says he still believes their best chance to defeat ZOOM’s to slow him down. Wells says they tried that with Cisco’s darts and was a disaster. Ramon grins and says he’s got a different tactic in mind.

“Team-Flash” convenes in the STAR Labs control-center, Jay Garrick now back full-time in the battle to defeat ZOOM. Cisco starts enlightening the group about a meta-human he’s tracked for an extended period that he’s dubbed “The Turtle.” The meta-human has the ability to slow down everything around him so he’s able to steal price objects of great personal value. We watch on a security camera “The Turtle” walk into a museum and grab a priceless artifact while all around are seemingly standing still.

Ramon says that if they can capture the criminal perhaps they can use his powers to slow down ZOOM enough for the Flash to defeat him. Harry asks how can they track him down and Barry logs into the GCPD computer and says all the crimes he committed got changed to reports of lost or missing items. A message appears on the screen, Barry reads it then speeds off. Caitlin tells the others that the GCPD just announced an impromptu press-conference to announce the recovery of the Vander Vort diamond collection. Cisco smiles and says “From Hell’s Heart I Stab At Thee.”

The representative from the family tells the reporters that they’re most pleased at recovering his grandfather’s ring, the piece that means the most to the family. Flash identifies “The Turtle” and starts to apprehend him when he’s stopped in place by this wave of energy the criminal emits. Flash moves slowly and not far as the thief winks at him as he takes the ring and then walks out. As soon as he leaves the station returns to normal and only Flash realizes what just took place.

When Barry returns to STAR Labs Jay and Harry explain to Allen that “The Turtle” drains kinetic energy from any area he’s in leaving only potential energy. Wells explains because of Barry’s super-speed he’s got more flexibility than any other human. Harry goes to Cisco’s lab to try to work on a formula using that principle to defeat ZOOM and Cisco feeling unappreciated follows him. They’ve got his identity due to their facial recognition software, he’s Russell Glosson a former small time hood who fell off the radar after the particle-accelerator exploded.

Allen realizes he owes Patty an explanation and he blames a lot of it on his mother’s death occurred this time of the year. Patty apologizes and Barry smiles and suggest they have a romantic evening the next night. Patty smiles and says she thinks that’s just what they need.

Joe, Iris and Barry finally give up the ghost that Wally’s coming for dinner and Joe’s visibly shaken. He hugs Iris and thanks Barry for being there for him and then says he’s going to bed. As he heads to bed Iris takes it as an opportunity to tell Barry about her coffee and chat with Patty. She tells Barry that he’s got to reveal his identity to her if his feelings for her are real. He nods and says he’ll tell Patty he’s the Scarlet Speedster.

The next day “Team-Flash” discover Glosson’s next target, the Central City Museum’s holding a gala that evening and will exhibit an incredibly rare and valuable painting “The Crystal Ball.” Barry, Jay and Caitlin will work the museum in tuxes and a gown for Snow, Harry and Cisco will monitor in the truck outside. Allen suddenly realizes he’s got the big date with Patty, but views it as an opportunity rather than a problem. He calls her up and asks if she minds switching to the gala and she’s fine with that and they’ll meet at the museum at seven.

Barry then informs the team that he’s revealing his identity to Patty that evening and that’s why he’s bringing her. Cisco congratulates him, Caitlin shows a concerned smile and Allen starts walking out of the control center when Wells stops him and says don’t tell her. Barry looks at him quizzically and Harry says you’ve got feelings for this woman I’m happy for you. Now if you want her safe you’ll keep her as far out of this as possible because once ZOOM finds out she’s a dead woman. Barry looks at the ground and nods, Wells just confirmed what his nightmares had told him.

Everybody’s in position that evening when Barry sees Patty and she looks just like she’s appeared in his nightmares and he flashes back to it and has a shocked expression on his face when he greets her. She asks if everything’s alright and he says she looks like she came out of a dream and she tells him he looks handsome. He suggests they talk and they start to dance.

Barry seems like he’s just about to tell Patty about him being The Flash as he starts talking about getting struck by lightning. Suddenly Glosson’s sighted and Barry just says he’s sorry but he’s got to leave. Her mind’s blown and she says what now and he just shrugs his shoulders and walks away. Patty turns around to see Glosson stealing the painting, reaches into her purse pulls out her weapon and identifies herself. Glosson steals the energy and suddenly he’s got Spivot’s gun in his hand and pointed at her. He shoots at the chandelier directly above her and somehow Flash forces his way past the energy waves knocking Patty out-of-the-way but the chandelier falls on him. Jay and Caitlin grab him and drag him out as Spivot regains consciousness.

At STAR Labs Barry checks out fine then he speeds off to Patty’s place. She’s hurt and angry when he arrives and she gives him an ultimatum. She says they had lots of fun, but she’s past that stage and if they’re to stay together they have to start caring about each other and trusting each other. She says he needs to decide what he wants and she says he needs to decide fast and stomps away. Barry says aloud fast’s his specialty, but this time he’s not fast enough.

There’s a drag race going on in a secluded area of Central City as Wally West plays chicken against another guy for the title of their cars. West wins easily, hence the nickname Tail-Lights. As the other driver gives Wally the keys and the paper, West sees Joe standing there watching.

The younger man approaches his father and asks if he’s had someone tailing him and Joe asks if that’s the real reason he came to Central City? He smirks and says nobody will race him any longer in his town Keystone. Joe starts talking harsh to the young man and Wally says he doesn’t answer to him. Joe says that he just committed a crime and he’s a police officer and Wally says that’s right the Great Detective that failed to track down his own son.

Wally then says he does what he does to pay for his mother’s medical treatments and Joe says he’ll gladly help so Wally can give it up. He says he’s got savings and he’ll dip into his pension. The younger man screams he doesn’t want his help and says he’s the man of his house. He then tells Joe to go home to his family and walks away.

Patty’s bumming big time and listening to Jazz when there’s a knock at the door and she smiles and scampers to the door thinking it’s Barry. Bad guess as it’s Glosson who forces his way in as she tries shutting the door on him. She once again pulls her weapon and fires three shots but he steals the energy and they fall to the ground spent. He steals it again and has the gun on her and says he’s got the Flash’s most prized possession, her.

Barry arrives find the door ajar calls for Patty and then does a super-speed search of her place. He steps on the bullets and realizes what happened. He calls Joe and tells him that “The Turtle’s” got Patty and to meet him at STAR Labs.

They’ve got no address for Glosson Joe says that they haven’t found an item he’s stolen. They realize that he doesn’t fence what he steals he keeps it and collects it. Then they find a record of Glosson’s wife worked for a library that closed not long after the Particle Accelerator exploded and realize that’s his hideout.

Glosson says he’s going to possess the thing that’s most important to him and she asks Barry and he responds The Flash. She asks him why he believes the speedster cares about her and he says he saw the way he saved her. She says he’s a superhero and that’s what he does he saves people’s lives. Glosson says that’s stupid because people are just unappreciative. His wife didn’t appreciate him and tried to leave him so he made her his. He pulls away a curtain and we see her standing in a display case lifeless, there’s a second case where he’ll keep Patty.

Barry’s told the only way to defeat him is to go in between his pulses which gives him two-tenths of a second. Flash enters the library and tries to fight through the waves but he’s stuck and Glosson whacks him about four times and he falls to the ground and then he leaves the library. Glosson looks shocked and says he doesn’t think you’re special and he pulls out a blade and gets ready to gut Spivot. However The Flash makes a second attempt and this time he knocks out his opponent. He cuts Patty’s bond’s and she hugs his torso still in the chair and thanks him whom ever he is.

Glosson’s locked up in a meta-human cell at STAR Labs and his powers are useless. Caitlin whose developed strong romantic feelings for Garrick tells him that she know he’s dying as she got his DNA from a glass he drank from. He tells her the only cure’s for him to regain his speed and for that they have to defeat ZOOM. She says let’s do it then and they hug.

Yes Barry blew it with Patty. She tells him she’s leaving Central City she’d always wanted to be a CSI investigator and four years ago she got accepted to a college to join their program. She said she put it off to become a cop and catch her father’s killer and she’s done that. She kisses Barry on the cheek.

Wally arrives at Joe’s house to pick up a sweater he left there and tells Joe he’s heading back home. He tells Joe if he’s waiting for an apology it’s not coming. West says he’s the one who should apologize, he felt bad that Wally grew up without him and tried to create an instant family. He asks what if they take it slow and just get to know each other, Wally stays and eats the Chinese food with Joe.

Wells keeps an audio-log we find out as he talks to his recorder as if it were his daughter. He recalls their first trip to a museum just her and him and he lost her and panicked and had the guards lock down the museum until he found her. He says he realized at that moment he’d do whatever it took to keep her safe. He then opens Glosson’s cell sticks some metal implement up his nose and it sucks something out of the meta-human and kills him.

Hold on, there’s more! We see a portal open and a speedster emerges wearing Flash’s uniform in a light color, in the flash of the portal opening it’s tough determining the color but we soon see a mouth so it can’t be ZOOM. When the portal closes, the speedster talks to his computer and a hologram appears above his wrist. He asks where the Hell he is as we realize Eobard Thawne’s returned to Central City! Next week The Return Of The Reverse Flash.

Secrets get revealed, partnerships form and a deal’s made with a demon, must be Christmas in Central City! All this and more took place in the final episode in 2015 of The CW hit series “The Flash,” as the show reshuffled the deck before heading on hiatus. Something to keep in mind though as the Scarlet Speedster and Team-Flash take a break for the holidays, it’s a lot easier to break a bond with a man who has no honor. Sometimes deals get made for no other reason than to buy time, as the party that’s coerced into the agreement attempts to think of a way of defeating their new-found ally.

The first image we see is Harrison Wells running from someone down some hallways. He grabs a weapon and attempts to fire it, however he finds himself with his feet dangling in the air as Zoom holds him by the throat. Wells tells the speedster to take his life but allow his daughter Jessie to go free and live. He says she’s innocent and he’ll gladly sacrifice his life to save hers. Zoom stays silent and doesn’t loosen his grip on Harrison’s throat, Wells tells the monster to kill him and finally Zoom speaks and says Merry Christmas.

Joe West and his daughter Iris are getting their final Christmas shopping done and sit down to get a bite to eat. Joe asks Iris what he should get Barry for Christmas and Iris suggests a really nice watch like Joe’s father gave him. Joe smiles and says his father had a message for his son when he gave him the watch, start arriving places on time. West says that when he was a kid he pledged if he ever had a son he’d give him fun gifts. Iris knowing that Joe does have a son that she hasn’t told him about gets a bit emotional.

Barry and Patty are making out at the station and she says they really should be acting more professional in case anyone comes in. Right then Iris comes in and Patty slaps Barry on the shoulder and says she’s got a 4:00 pm to midnight shift and she’ll see him around.

Iris then tells Barry about her brother that she’s kept hidden from Joe since she had contact with her mother earlier in the season. She says that she feels terrible about not telling him sooner and the news will kill him. Barry tells her he’ll handle it well and he’ll help break the news to Joe. Iris hugs him and thanks him then takes off.

Back at STAR Labs Jay Garrick and Caitlin are trying to come up with a way to close all the breaches to Earth-Two except for the one at STAR Labs. Snow tells Jay she truly appreciates him watching out for Barry and Garrick replies he’s not the only one whose welfare he’s concerned with. Cisco trying to rebound from a broken-heart plays the wise-guy and tells Jay to kiss her already then asks Caitlin how’s Wells doing? She says she believes he’s still asleep but as Ramon turns to go find him Harrison’s standing right behind him.

Barry and Iris noticed it started to snow as they finished their conversation earlier, turns out the white-stuff didn’t come from Mother Nature. The Weather Wizard shows up at Iron Heights Prison and breaks out Captain Cold and The Trickster. Leonard Snart, Captain Cold’s real name isn’t a fan of James Jesse/The Trickster and asks Mark Mardon/Weather Wizard why he broke them out. Mardon tells Leonard that they’re going to team-up to kill the Flash and with Weather Wizard’s powers, Captain Cold’s smarts and The Trickster’s flair for the dramatic they’ll be successful.

Joe and Barry meet up at Iron Heights and discuss the escape and West tells Barry this might set Patty off as Mardon killed her father. Patty arrives looking grim-faced and Barry tries to talk to her, but she blows him off saying he has no understanding of the situation. She tells him she cares for him but he’s over his head in this type of situation. Which leads me to my question of the goings on in Central City. In the last few weeks Barry’s told Linda Park and Kendra Saunders he’s the Flash, why hasn’t he told the woman he cares about Patty Spivot about his secret identity?

I’m not much of a “shipper” when it comes to shows and characters that I follow, however Patty Spivot’s pretty much a perfect match for Barry Allen. She’s truly adorable, they share he same interests and she’s crazy about him and her admiration would only increase for him if he told her he’s the Flash. I don’t want to see this relationship get dashed on the rocks because she finds out accidentally. He’s a lot closer with Patty than he was with Joe’s former partner Eddie Thawne and he knew Barry’s the Scarlet Speedster. Let’s get Patty in the loop as soon as possible when the show returns.

West comes home to find Iris and Barry sitting there waiting to talk to him and he knows something big is going down. Barry starts to take the lead but Iris cuts him off feeling it’s her responsibility to inform her father and tells Joe that he has a son and she has a brother named Wally West. Joe smiles saying that’s short for Wallace, which is what they planned to call Iris if she’d been a boy.

Joe’s obviously unsettled by the revelation and tells his daughter he needs time to process things and tells her to give him time to let things set. He then says he needs to get back to the station. Iris asks Barry if she thinks Joe’s going to be alright and Barry says that he’ll be fine. However Barry’s not fine when he discovers Captain Cold sitting in the easy-chair in the living room.

Barry pins Leonard against a wall and asks him if he’s insane coming to Allen’s house? Snart says this is a fine way to treat him when he shows up to give him his Christmas present. He then tells Barry that Weather Wizard and The Trickster are teaming up to defeat him, they asked him to join them but he’s decided against it. However he turns down Barry’s request to team up with him and help the Flash defeat the duo.

We find out Wells confrontation with Zoom actually took place in the opening scene and wasn’t a nightmare or a hallucination. The monster enters STAR Labs through the breach and asks Harrison if he’s made his decision and Wells says he needs more time. Zoom says he needs his decision immediately but Wells stays resolute that he needs more time before he gives the villain an answer. Zoom tells him he has one day then says he’ll say hello to his daughter for him and goes back through the breach.

The Trickster’s commandeered the airwaves and he’s on every TV station in Central City saying it’s going to be a very bloody Christmas. He says his stocking’s going to be filled with Flash parts and then laughs hysterically. As he finishes his address to the city, Caitlin notices an image reflected in Jesse’s iris. Wells recognizes it as a children’s toy he bought his daughter when she was in grade school. Cisco soon finds the distribution warehouse that the toys shipped from and the Flash heads there to try to catch The Trickster.

He arrives and he’s soon joined by Patty Spivot whose obsessed with finding Mardon and making him pay for her father’s death. They both soon realize that it’s a trap and neither of the criminals are there. However a videotape starts playing and an image of Jesse tells them that the dreidels that are heading for them from all sides are made from C-4 explosives. The Flash tells Spivot to wrap her arms around him and he rotates his hands fast enough to create an up-draft that takes them to safety.

Flash tells Spivot to let him handle this situation and for her to back off, he understands that Mardon murdered her father but says she’ll just get hurt. She confesses to Flash that she worked for her father before he got killed, but ditched work that day to hang with her friends. So her father got robbed by Mardon and killed for a few hundred bucks. She said it’s her fault her father died and she’s going to make Mardon pay.

Cisco creates a wand that will draw all the electricity out of the air where Mardon’s at making it impossible for him to access his powers. Cisco tracks down Weather Wizard and The Trickster to Central City Square where the city’s holding the tree lighting ceremony. Flash grabs the wand and speeds down there. Turns out Weather Wizard’s acquired the power of flight but Flash chases him down and zaps him with the wand causing Mardon to fall onto a rooftop.

Flash asks Weather Wizard if he truly thought he could beat him like that and Mardon says of course not, but Central City’s hero will allow Mardon to beat him now. He reveals that The Trickster posed as a department store Santa Claus and handed out 100 bombs to random children from all over the city. Unless Flash submits to Mardon’s beating 100 families will get blown up instantly, Flash agrees not to fight back.

Team-Flash monitoring Barry from STAR Labs hears what’s going on and Wells says if they can find one of the bombs reverse the polarity and send it into the breach all the other bombs will get sucked up with it. Garrick, Ramon and Wells get into a vehicle and find one of the homes with the bombs. Wells straps it to a drone and guides it through the breach and all the other bombs get sucked into the breach as well. Barry’s hanging on when Cisco tells him the bombs are gone he then quickly takes out Mardon and The Trickster.

Spivot shows up and uses Cisco’s invention to stop Meta-Humans the boot to keep Flash on the sidelines, then she grabs her service revolver and stands over Mardon and says this is for her father. Flash tells her if she does this her life’s over and she’ll lose everybody she cares about and she’ll be all alone once again. She decides to cuff Mardon instead and releases Flash and apologizes.

Everybody’s at Joe’s house for a Christmas Eve celebration. Patty arrives and tells Barry she wants to tell him what’s been going on and he says it’s the best Christmas present he could receive. Suddenly the door bell rings and a young man’s standing in the doorway he introduces himself as Wally West, Francine’s son. He says he sees Joe’s got company and says he’ll come back some other time, but Joe insists he come in and join the party.

Wells gets another visit from Zoom in the final scene and the speedster asks Harrison what’s his decision. Wells says he needs to see his daughter first and Zoom quickly gets her and puts her in front of Wells. The two embrace and she begs her father to save him. Zoom then snatches her back and leaves her back in her cage and asks Wells his decision. Wells tells Zoom that he’ll help him steal The Flash’s speed and the screen goes black.

This week’s chapter of The CW Network series “The Flash,” revolved around picking up the pieces, recovering from traumatic injuries and regaining confidence. The pummeling the Scarlet Speedster received in his first encounter with Zoom left Barry Allen a broken man, physically and mentally. The monster from Earth-Two broke Allen’s back and humiliated him in front of the people he swore to protect. The Flash’s super-metabolism healed his physical wounds within a week, but it took a heart-to-heart talk with Barry’s hero before he regained confidence in his abilities and himself.

We join Team-Flash at STAR Labs a week after Barry’s spine got shattered, he’s slowly walking with the aid of a cane and Detective Joe West. He runs out of steam and says that it for that session. Caitlin tells him that the MRI results from earlier that afternoon show that he’s almost completely healed and he should be donning his suit shortly.

Harrison Wells tells Team-Flash he’s heading back to Earth-Two but Caitlin attempts to convince him to stay with them until they defeat Zoom. He walks off saying he’s going back to his dimension with or without their assistance. Cisco and Joe ask Snow why she’s so adamant about wanting Wells to stay and she says with Jay Garrick in the wind he’s their only source of knowledge on Zoom.

Cisco has his first date with Kendra Saunders and they’re going to see The Princess Bride in a cinema. They touch and Ramon goes Vibe and sees a vision of Kendra in her Hawkgirl uniform but he can’t process what he sees and it freaks him out. He tells her he hates to do this but he needs to leave and she stands there after he leaves confused and clueless.

Ramon’s not the only one with romantic problems as Barry has avoided seeing Patty since he got hurt and she knows he’s hiding something. She calls him and offers to bring over soup and take care of him but he tells her he’d hate for her to get sick. She hangs up confused and unhappy.

We jump to some scientific facility and we watch scientists and techs interacting when suddenly one of the top scientists Dr. Jeffrey Shore starts getting visions. One of his subordinates tries talking to Shore but he’s unresponsive then smashes open a plate-glass storage container and grabs a large canister inside it. The other guy tries to stop him, but Shore hits him in the head with the canister and flees the facility.

He gets down to the street and suddenly he becomes coherent as if he’d been sleeping. He asks himself what he’s done and then sees the creature that controlled his mind Grodd, the super-ape that gained his powers when the particle-accelerator exploded. Shore asks the ape who he is and the giant simian growls back stupid human I’m Grodd.

Barry gets on the treadmill as Iris and Joe watch and West keeps throwing out words of encouragement. Barry finally starts to let loose when he flashes back mentally to getting beaten by Zoom he freaks out trips and gets thrown from the treadmill. Iris tries to connect with Barry but soon walks off and lets Joe talk to him. Allen tells the detective that Zoom destroyed him, he beat him to a pulp and showed all of Central City how he mastered the Flash. All those people he pledged to keep safe saw that he couldn’t back up his words.

West talks to Iris and says that Barry’s healed physically but nobody can get through to him. She says then it’s time to get the one person that can get through to him. Joe smiles and says they’ll discuss that at home, Patty just called him about a new case.

Caitlin tracks down Wells at a diner as he’s in the process of making a map. She says he has to stay and help Team-Flash and he says he made a big mistake coming to Earth-Prime. He says he hoped that with the help of the Flash he’d defeat Zoom, now he’s going back to his world to accomplish that. Snow says he’ll just get himself killed and how will that help his daughter? She says they should have concentrated on closing the breaches to Wells’ world and the light goes on in his eyes. They’ll close all the breaches except for the largest in STAR Labs and trap Zoom.

Patty and Joe work the death of Dr. Jeffrey Shore and they believe their suspect’s a Meta-Human. Spivot says there was a similar case at another science facility a couple of weeks before and she’s going to check out the other case for similarities. She also comments they found lots of hair at the scene and she’s getting that identified.

Cisco and Caitlin are talking when she becomes unresponsive and we see she’s having the same visions that Shore experienced. She slugs Ramon in the jaw and runs out, Barry and Cisco watch Snow leaving the building as if in a trance and Grodd’s following her.

Joe arrives at the lab with news that Grodd’s returned and Wells says that his dimension’s also got a version of the super-ape. Just then the man Iris summoned to get through to Barry arrives, Henry Allen embraces his son as Team-Flash attempts to come up with a solution to save Caitlin. Cisco comes up and says they’ve got a solution to save Snow and Allen asks him how. Barry hears a voice behind say with me and he turns around to see the Reverse-Flash sneering at him. Allen’s about to start beating him when Ramon explains it’s Harry and they found this suit in the vault. Wells will attempt to convince the simian that he’s the man that raised him.

Caitlin wakes up on the floor and starts calling for Grodd, the ape hears her and jumps down from the rafters to greet her. Grodd tells her that she’d always been kind to him and he needs her help. He asks her how he acquired his abilities and she says it’s a long and complicated story, but the actual cause was Dark Matter. Grodd says to her repeat, she wants her to create more of his kind. She says she doesn’t know how and Grodd says learn.

Dr. Henry Allen gives his son a complete physical and says he’s completely healed physically, then Barry tells him what he told Joe. Henry tells his son that his life got destroyed and his reputation ruined when he got charged with killing his wife and Barry’s mother. He said he could see it in people’s faces in the courtroom during the trial, how they stopped trusting him and he eventually lost them all. His son asks him how he survived and Henry says by embracing it, if he could survive the experience he could withstand anything. He says he believes in his son and he’ll win back the people’s trust.

Wells and Cisco track down Caitlin in Grodd in a church bell-tower and Wells walks in and says hey buddy to Grodd. The giant ape says that his father’s dead but Harrison says no buddy I’ve just been gone for a while. He says now that he’s back Grodd doesn’t need Snow so he’s going to take her out of there and then says please. Grodd growls and throws Wells against a wall saying father take not ask and asks who he is?

Ramon and Snow can escapee and Barry tells them to take off but Cisco says that Harry’s still in there. Allen tells Wells to inject the ape with large quantities of the drugs he stole from the facilities and that will knock him out. Wells grabs the implements to inject the ape with and then he says he is Grodd’s father and Grodd just struck his father. As he’s telling him he didn’t abandon him he injects the gorilla with the drugs and he passes out allowing all to escape.

Caitlin stitches up the gash in Wells’ abdomen when they return to STAR Labs and West says they’ve got to do something about Grodd. Snow asks if he means killing the great best Joe says yes and she says it’s not his fault and he’s lonely and he’s looking for others of his kind. Harrison says that one of the breaches in Central City contains a jungle-habitat on Earth-Two with other intelligent creatures. When someone asks how they’ll lure him there, Henry says my son will lead him right Flash?

Caitlin lures Grodd out to the street then Flash takes her away and tells the ape if he wants Caitlin he needs to catch him. Grodd leaps from rooftop to rooftop and surprises Flash who once again has a flashback of Zoom and freaks, Grodd’s stepping on him and asking where Caitlin’s at? She lures Grodd into the circle that the breach covers and then Flash pulls her out of there. The breach starts sucking in the giant simian but he’s fighting to break free.

Henry contacts Flash through the com-device and tells his son he can’t let Grodd get free. He needs to summon up his strength and courage and knock him through the breach. Flash does it and the portal closes.

Cisco has another date with Kendra and when they kiss he realizes she’s Hawkgirl and he says you’re awesome. She asks him why and he says because she’s such a great kisser.

Turns out that Jay Garrick’s assessment was unfortunately spot on that Earth-Prime’s version of “The Flash,” had not prepared enough to take on the evil speedster from Earth-Two Zoom. Just how badly did the demon whose wreaked havoc on Earth-Two for the past two-years defeat Barry Allen? Try picturing a contest between a pile-drive and a stake with Flash in the role of the stake, as Allen was fortunate to escape with his life. Battered and broken the Scarlet Speedster held serious doubts whether he’d be able to resume his crime-fighting career. At the very least will have to go through some major physical-therapy and rehab to once again be fastest man on Earth-Prime.

Perhaps I watch too many action-adventure oriented series, but when a show begins with an action sequence in which it appears our hero’s in dire-straights, followed by a graphic that informs us we’re going to jump back to 72-hours-earlier, you’ve tipped your hand that the scene’s phony. This hackneyed device seems to be employed on an almost weekly basis by some series during the Prime-Time schedule and should be retired for the foreseeable future.

The action started out with Earth-Two villain Doctor Light zapping Flash with three bolts of energy and he hits the concrete apparently unconscious. She rips the lightning-bolt emblem off his chest and laughs haughtily saying Zoom never loses. Then we see the graphic telling us we’re heading back three-days before this battle took place. Considering Flash defeated Doctor Light in the previous episode and locked her in a cage for Meta-Human prisoners at STAR Labs, immediately got me questioning the legitimacy of the previous scene. However we’ll return to that point in a bit.

The Flash’s questioning the Linda Park of Earth-Two about Zoom and why she attempted to kill her Earth-Prime double in the previous chapter. She said she hoped that Zoom would find her Doppelganger’s corpse and conclude she died in a battle against Flash and she could live a carefree life here on Earth-Prime. The protector of Central City tells her that as long as Zoom’s on the loose she’ll never be free and tells her that he can defeat him with her help.

He asks her how she was supposed to contact him and she replies she’d been told to take his emblem and throw it through the breach. Zoom would show up on our side of the black-hole shortly after and take her back to her home. Flash asks her to team up with him and trick Zoom into thinking she was victorious, then they’d defeat him when he walked through the breach. After telling him that he can’t stop Zoom she reluctantly agrees to go along with the plan.

Barry meets with Team-Flash and Wells and tells them about his plan and Caitlin asks him how he expects to defeat Zoom if he encounters him. Wells says that he’s worked out a formula on his planet that can dampen Zoom’s powers and leave him vulnerable for attack. He suggests that Cisco creates a weapon that can project a dart containing the formula. Caitlin says that Zoom’s supposed to be faster and more powerful than Barry and Allen can catch bullets, how does Wells expect to strike Zoom with the dart. The scientist says they’ll use the element of surprise and shoot the projectiles at him when he emerges from the breach. Detective Joe West says they need a plan and it sounds as viable as anything he’s thought of.

Wells and Allen take off in separate directions and Joe gathers Caitlin and Cisco to talk privately. Snow asks West if he’s just discounted everything Jay Garrick told him and believes Wells is right? The detective smiles and says Hell no, he’s wary of him and just wants to give him enough rope to hang himself. He then looks at Ramon and tells him Barry told him that Cisco can do something with his mind and Snow says vibe. Joe asks Cisco if he can use it on Wells and he says he can try.

Wells starts making the compound in one of the labs and as he works he has a flashback to STAR Labs on Earth-Two as he berates one of his scientists on the phone. With sarcasm dripping from his voice he asks the person on the other end to do him a favor. Since that person’s incapable of doing the job they got hired for, find Wells someone who can do the job and slams down the phone.

Jesse Wells, the scientist’s daughter entered his office while he was still on the phone and she says she still has troubles reconciling the fact that he adopts a far stricter persona at STAR Labs than the laid-back Dad she knows from home. Harrison says her mother’s always had the same reaction then asks her why she’s not in school. Jesse smiles and says she graduated high-school at 15 and her first course at Central City University doesn’t start for another two-hours.

We soon realize that this conversation’s taking place shortly after Wells held his press-conference announcing STAR Labs new app, that got interrupted when Jay Garrick appeared and accused Wells of being responsible for all the Meta-Humans. Jesse asks her father if what Flash said was indeed fact and he responded that Garrick’s far faster at throwing groundless accusations than when he’s chasing criminals. Jesse takes Flash’s side saying Garrick’s a hero and only has Central City’s best interests at heart.

Perhaps Wells’ ego gets the best of him but he admits to his daughter that he’s responsible for the Meta-Humans and starts sounding like he’s bragging. Her father’s admission doesn’t sit well with Jessie and she says she’s leaving, Wells says she should probably head for school and she replies she’d already received quite an education that morning.

Doctor Light derives her powers from the stars, which gives her the ability to emit energy beams but also enables to control the light spectrum which she utilizes to escape from STAR-Labs. Cisco walks by her cell to find Doctor Light’s vanished with only her visor costume and boots remaining. Reacting to the panic that suddenly grips him he opens the cell and soon realizes that Park made herself invisible, she’s hacked the security system and Doctor Light has left the building.

Team-Flash momentarily believes there plan’s gone with Doctor Light until Caitlin suggests that Barry ask Linda Park if she’d like to help. Allen says that she’s staying with Iris at Joe’s house and he’ll talk to Iris and have her broach the subject with Linda. Joe asks Barry if they can talk privately for a moment and he tells his surrogate son that perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that Doctor Light escaped and it was a message to them that the time’s not right for him to take on Zoom.

Joe asks him how much of Allen’s motivation comes from defeating Zoom rather than him still trying to defeat the Reverse-Flash. Barry says he already defeated him and West says that Allen’s the first one to say that Eddie took out the Reverse-Flash by shooting himself to death and preventing his descendent from being born. He says that Barry’s dealing with a guy that’s got the same face as the man that murdered his mother. He tells Allen he’s got to figure out his true motivation before he challenges Zoom.

Cisco approaches Wells while he’s working on the compound and tells Harrison he’s really impressed with the equation Wells worked out and slaps him on the shoulder and says congratulations. He then closes his eyes and attempts to see inside the scientist, but Wells rises from his stool and asks Ramon what he’s doing? Cisco says it’s called congratulations and Harrison’s face and voice become as cold as ice. He asks Cisco what he vibed from him and when Ramon responds nothing he asks him once again. He tells Ramon that if he’s got a question ask him and not to touch him again. As he walks away Caitlin tells Cisco he’s got to attempt it again.

Harrison has another flashback as he’s sitting in his office at STAR Labs on Earth-Two watching the news on TV as he works on a projectile gun. In a wink to their sister-series Arrow, the newscaster reports that Robert Queen’s been identified as the man known as the Arrow. Queen was believed dead in a boating accident in the South Seas. The newscaster then says that reports are coming in that there’s a Meta-Human attack taking place in the science building of Central City University. Wells calls Jessie gets her voice-mail and starts to leave a message when he glances back at the screen and sees a live shot from the school that’s focused on Jessie’s cellphone. It’s lying on the grass with the lens cracked and Wells picture appearing as the caller-ID reads Dad.

Iris brings Linda to STAR Labs and Park says that Joe told her to stay in their house and not to leave. Iris smiles and replies then something came up and Linda’s shocked to see the Flash standing in front of her and even more taken aback when he asks for her help.

Cisco’s rigged up a pair of gloves that will mimic the energy bolts that Doctor Light projects and Ramon stresses that these gloves pack a jolt but that Barry’s suit will easily absorb it. Then Linda undergoes her training regimen and quickly shows she’s far from a natural. She improves by the end of the training session to not totally awful, but Flash tells her she can do it. Wells tells her to stop yelling every time she fires a blast and says he’ll work out some minor flaws in the gloves.

Joe and Barry have another private conversation and West asks Allen if he’s sure about going ahead with this and Barry says Linda will work out great. He says that he’s been thinking about their earlier conversation and Joe’s right, Barry’s still fighting old battles but not for the reason he believes.

He talks about the message Wells left for Barry on the flash-drive when Wells said he’s about to make Allen’s greatest wish a reality, but he believes that Barry still will never be truly happy. He tells Joe that Wells’ words resonated within him as he never has felt truly happy. Joe tells Barry to forget what Wells said and that Allen’s responsible for his own happiness so go out and grab what makes you happy. Allen smiles and we can see Joe’s words got to him.

Back at the station Patty Spivot’s showing some other women officers a video on her phone with babies making funny faces when Barry comes over. She starts to tell him about the video but he backs the two of them into a relatively secluded corner and kisses her. She smiles and thanks him and asks what that’s for and Barry says he’s decided to seek out happiness and kissing her makes him happy. They kiss again before she says she’s got to get back to work.

Linda’s overcome by the reality of what she’s volunteered to do and backs out heading back to the West home when Flash arrives and tries to get her to change her mind. Flash tells her that he knows she’s strong and a fighter and that she’s up to the task. She smiles and says that’s nice to hear, but with all due respect what are you basing it on. Flash says Linda you’re trusting me, so I’m going to trust you and removes his head-piece. She barely mouths the word Barry and then says Holy Crap I used to make-out with the Flash.

Which brings us back full circle to our opening scene as we see that the whole thing’s a setup to lure Zoom through the breach and trap him. Both Wells and West are in sniper position with weapons equipped with the darts aimed at the breach. Flash’s unharmed by the bolts but plays the part and acts like he’s dead. Linda shouts into the breach she killed the Flash and throws his emblem into the breach and yells for Zoom to take her home. They wait an hour before they realize he didn’t fall for it.

Later Linda and Iris are back at their newspaper and talking about the disappointment they share that the plan didn’t work. Park says she’ll see Iris tomorrow and leaves the office but doesn’t get far before confronting a hideous mask that frightens herb to her core.

Cisco concocts a way to vibe Wells as he comes over with a can of lubrication oil and accidentally on-purpose spills the can on Wells work-station. As he cleans up the mess he and Wells make contact and Ramon gets a vision of Jessie in a cage being held by Zoom. The Speedster tells Jessie that her father’s on the other Earth and she says Wells will defeat Zoom and the vision fades. Suddenly the phone rings with Iris calling Barry telling him that Zoom’s captured Linda and Cisco says they’re on the roof.

Flash arrives and sees Zoom holding Linda in the air, he says that Flash uses people as bait and he does as well then throws Linda from the roof. Barry races to the pavement and then rapidly vibrates his arms creating a wind that slows her down enough that he catches her easily and deposits her safely on the sidewalk. He turns around to see Zoom in front of him and the man’s huge.

Flash asks Zoom what he wants from him and Zoom growls back everything. Flash smiles and says you want to be me, you want to be a hero? Zoom responds heroes die and Flash says you got to catch us first. He then races around the city faster and faster and Cisco excitedly says he’s going to thunderbolt him and the Flash grabs a lightning bolt he created with his speed and fires it at Zoom. The villain slips out-of-the-way at the last instant grabs it and fires it back at the Flash hitting him in the chest and throwing him into a building. Flash then leads Zoom on a supersonic chase and the pair plummet to the street in a free-fall trading blows the entire way down. Zoom however gains the advantage and senses Wells behind him attempting to surprise him with the dart but Zoom grabs it in his hand.

He smashes Flash to the ground and we hear a crunching sound coming from Allen’s body as if the demon crushed his back. He then picks up the Flash’s broken body and speeds to the newspaper that Iris and Linda write for. He holds Flash up in front of them as videographers grab the cameras and says behold your hero, he’s not a God. He’s nothing.

He then runs to Joe’s station and stands in front of all the officers holding Flash by the scruff of the neck. He yells out that the days of Flash protecting their city have ended. What will they do without their precious hero. Joe’s captain orders all his officers to open fire on Zoom but the behemoth stands there and catches all the bullets then opens his hand lets them fall to the floor.

He then races back to STAR Labs where Cisco, Caitlin and Wells are trying to track down Zoom and Barry. Zoom looks at Wells and says you expected to beat me with this as he pulls Barry’s headpiece off his face. Harrison says he made a terrible mistake and Zoom says and a costly one and he’s about to kill Barry but Cisco catches him by surprise hitting him with the dart. The compound weakens him causing him to let Allen loose and he falls to the ground briefly before he gets back up and goes back through the breach as Wells screams no.

Barry’s lying comatose on a bed at STAR Labs as Cisco, Caitlin, West and Wells are gathered around him. Joe grabs Wells by the lapels and tells the scientist this is on him and if Barry dies he dies. Caitlin says that Barry’s vital signs have stabilized and West says Harrison best hope that continues. Cisco tells Joe to chill for a bit and asks Wells who’s Jessie. Wells puts his hands on Cisco’s shoulders and asks did you vibe me did you see her? Ramon says yes to both questions and says that Zoom’s holding her as prisoner. Wells asks but she’s alive and West asks did he send you over here to kill Barry also? He asks is that the only way you’ll get her back? Harrison says the only way he gets her back is by defeating Zoom and he prayed that Barry could help him do that.

With Caitlin and Cisco at his side Barry finally comes to in the final scene. Barry’s vision’s fuzzy at first but he soon sees his friends as well as ever. Ramon says he scared them nearly to death as he was out a long time and he taps Allen on the thigh as a welcome back gesture. Caitlin smiles and says she’s thankful he heals as quickly as he does.

They see the agitation suddenly on Barry’s face and Cisco says oh no fighting’s a long way off. Allen says that’s not it, he can’t feel his legs.

Although I thoroughly season one of the CW Network series “The Flash,” it seemed rather ironic that a show about the “Fastest Man Alive” moved at the pace of a glacier. After all the series revealed there was something shady about Dr. Harrison Wells in the pilot yet the situation wasn’t resolved until the season finale. That situation’s been rectified this season, with changes, information and new characters getting introduced at warp speed. That trend continued in the latest chapter entitled “The Darkness And The Light,” as Team-Flash had to deal with some familiar faces in new roles.

The action opens on Earth-Two, as we’re alerted to when we once again see the shot of the bullet trains. A graphic informs us we’ve jumped back eight months as we attend a press conference held at STAR Labs. We hear the voice of the man speaking before we see his face, he greets the crowd with false modesty saying for those who don’t know him his name’s Dr. Harrison Wells. His words are met with appreciative applause.

He tells those gathered that it’s been an amazing couple of years in Central City, as they’ve witnessed people known as Meta-Humans who possess incredible abilities including flight and super-speed. Unfortunately many of those blessed with these gifts have gone down a dark path and proven to be a danger to the city. He says that STAR Labs has utilized all it’s forces to their mission of helping to keep the public safe and he’s gathered them to announce a wearable Meta-Human detector-app. Wells straps the over-sized wrist-band on his right arm and says that the signal picks up any Meta-Humans in the near vicinity such as Zoom….

His words get interrupted as the detector starts beeping and a whoosh of air enters the hall and soon the crowd applaud Central City’s Super-Hero Jay Garrick The Flash. We see an attractive young woman with some connection to Wells show the excitement on her face as the Crimson Comet arrives. Garrick however doesn’t look happy as he confronts Wells and asks him when he’s finally going to admit that he’s responsible for all the Meta-Humans including Doom. The crowd gasps as Garrick says that 11-hours before the first sighting of a Meta-Human STAR Labs had released tons of Dark-Matter gas underneath their facility, one of the side-effects of his actions created the Meta-Humans.

Seething at Wells he spits out that perhaps when Wells can admit all the damage he’s done he can then help Garrick in his quest to defeat Doom. Wells caustically laughs and says he’s just the planet’s number one tech entrepreneur, it’s the Flash whose the Superhero. He says it’s time for him to do his job and capture Zoom. A look of shame crosses Garrick’s features and he leaves the facility at super-speed. The attractive young woman shouts across the hall to Wells asking her Dad if he’s okay and he responds he’s fine, then goes back to talking about the future.

Back on Earth-Prime in the present, Earth-Two’s Harrison Wells sits in our version of STAR Labs along with Barry Allen and an incredulous Cisco and Caitlin as he skims through the autobiography of the deceased Harrison Wells. Cisco’s trying to come to grips with the man in front of him didn’t murder Nora Allen or lead to the deaths of Eddie and Ronnie. Wells tells the trio he’s completely clueless about what they’re talking about and that the Wells they knew isn’t him.

Ramon asks Barry why they should believe anything he says and Allen responds because he saved his life the previous night when King Shark attempted to devour him. Barry then turns to Wells and asks him why he decided to go through the breach, as it certainly wasn’t to meet him. The scientist says that Allen’s exactly the reason he traveled through the dimensions as he’s going to help the speedster defeat his greatest enemy. Cisco says he already did that when the Reverse Flash got bested. Wells says he’s not referring to the Reverse Flash he’s talking about Zoom and sees by the look in Caitlin’s eyes that they know the name.

Allen tells him that Zoom’s sent a series of Meta-Humans through the breach to kill him. The scientist says that the beings he sent are just the symptoms, Zoom’s the plague. He’s been wreaking havoc on his world and now he’s got his sights set on defeating Allen and having a field-day on our planet. Barry asks him how much he knows about Zoom and Wells says everything. He says he created Zoom and all the Meta-Humans by releasing Dark-Matter from his particle-accelerator, a responsibility he wouldn’t previously accept but now he’s going to do something about it.

Detective Joe West walks in sees Wells standing there and instinctively pulls out his service revolver and fires three shots at him, Barry’s quick enough to catch all three bullets leaving the scientist unharmed. West stares Wells dead in the face and asks him how he’s alive and Harrison responds probably because West missed. Allen puts his arm around Joe’s shoulders and suggests they take a walk.

Barry finally convinces his surrogate-dad that this Wells is a completely different guy and has no connection to the guy they spent last year fighting. Joe tells Barry that he’s got to talk to Iris and let her know that there’s a guy back at STAR Labs with the same face as the man who led to her fiancée’s death. Joe explains it to his daughter who handles the news far better than he did. Still not ready to accept that this Wells is a good-guy he gives Iris a pistol to carry just-in-case.

Ramon and Allen head down to CC Jitters and run into Joe’s partner Patty Spigot. Barry was all set to ask her out last week before getting grabbed by King Shark and then realizing Wells was the guy that killed the creature. Spigot’s outwardly shown her interest in Barry since they first met but the situation with King Shark shook his confidence. Patty heads back to her station house feeling a little dejected and Cisco tells Barry he blew that big-time. He then turns around and he’s enchanted with the new woman at the register and asks her out. She says no and he feels like he’d wish the ground opened up and swallowed him.

Seconds later however Ramon gets another vision, he sees a female Meta-Human robbing the Central City bank and tells Barry he’s got to go immediately. The Flash arrives just as the Meta-Human’s about to leave, she hurls an energy bolt at him which he bends out-of-the-way of and says to her she’s got his attention. The robber than slams her hands down on the floor creating a concussive blast that throws two customers into the air and the Flash catches them both but the Meta-Human’s escaped.

Allen returns to STAR Labs and describes the Meta-Human he encountered and Wells tells them the villain’s from his Earth and goes by the name of Doctor Light. She was a petty-thief before she got doused with the Dark-Matter and now she’s got the ability to siphon power from stars. Cisco’s impressed and says cool to which responds that given the temperature that a star burns at and it’s iridescence it wouldn’t be cool at all. Cisco shows the disgust on his face when he says “You know our Dr. Wells was evil, but you’re just a Dick.”

Wells tells the pair that they need to capture Dr. Light and hold her as a prisoner to lure Zoom to this Earth. Garrick walks out of the hallway and says to Wells that he’s insane and they’re not going to lure Zoom anywhere. The man whose accident gave Garrick his abilities says like everyone else on his Earth he thought Garrick died, he says he should have realized that he ran away and was hiding from Zoom an entire universe away.

Garrick snaps back that he didn’t run away that Zoom had him on the ropes and stole his speed when the Singularity opened up and sent him to this universe. Then the two start arguing about what they should do with Dr. Light once they capture her. Jay tells Barry she’s a thief not a killer and all he’s got to do is reason with her. Allen ends the discussion when he says they don’t need to decide anything until they capture her and they have to locate her to do that.

Barry finally gathers up his courage and asks Patty out for dinner and she says she hopes she’s not going to get all excited and he calls at the last-minute begging off with a science-project to complete. He laughs and says he’s been wanting to do this for a while, the conversation ends as both of their cellphones ring. Allen’s call’s from Cisco saying that the silent alarm just got tripped at the bank.

Barry finds Dr. Light in front of a palette of cash and she tries taking him out with another energy-bolt. He tells her to calm down he knows who she is and he’s aware that the only reason she’s on his Earth’s because Zoom took her there and left her with instructions to kill the Flash if she wanted to go home. He says that he and his people can protect her from Zoom, she says nobody can stop Zoom and he asks her to hear him out.

She removes the visor that covers her face as a sign of good faith and reveals that she’s the Earth-Two duplicate of Linda Park, the girl Barry briefly dated last year and who works as a reporter with Iris. Shocked he says her name and she freaks out wondering how he knows her name. She says she knew she shouldn’t have trusted him and emits this blinding light and escapes. Cisco contacts Flash via their audio-com and the speedster says he can’t see.

Back at STAR Labs Barry’s vision still hasn’t returned and Caitlin tells him he’s fortunate he escaped the incident without permanent blindness. Jay says because of the speed of his metabolism his eyesight will return in hours, Wells chimes in that it will return in exactly 6.25 hours. Barry’s now concerned that he put the Earth-Prime version of Linda Park in danger and says he’s going to the paper to make sure she’s safe. Unfortunately Barry resembles a human-mole as he’s squinting and all he can detect is light and colors. Garrick and Caitlin say they’ll drive the van over and make sure she’s safe and sound.

Suddenly Allen’s cellphone rings and he tries to find it, Iris tells him to calm down and she’ll get it. She tells her he received a text saying running a few minutes late, P. She asks who that is and Barry tells her he had his first date set with Joe’s partner Patty in a couple of hours, but she’ll likely never speak to him again as he’s got to cancel. Iris smiles and says you’re at STAR Labs, surely there’s something or someone here that can help you. Barry calls Cisco for assistance.

Barry’s wearing a pair of Ray-Ban’s equipped with a microscopic camera and an audio feed from Cisco. Cisco guides him through the date with voice commands as if he was operating a remote control robot. It appears that Allen’s pulled things off perfectly when Patty tells him she realizes he can’t see a thing. Barry laughs and takes off the sunglasses off and puts them in his pocket. He tells her he got his pupils dilated but he didn’t want to cancel. She’s enchanted that he tried to pull it off just to keep the date.

Caitlin returns to the van with fresh coffee for her and Jay. She asks him what Wells was referring to when he said that Garrick had run away from Zoom. Jay opens up to her and tells her that he’s actually terrified of Zoom, they fought several times and each time he barely escaped with his life. He then stole his most precious possession his speed and he’s afraid he’ll do the same to Barry or perhaps kill him. Snow says she doesn’t trust Wells but she trusts him.

They start discussing Earth-Two and she asks if they have a Tahiti. He says they do but he’s never visited, but he’s been to Atlantis. Caitlin’s eyes grow wide as she asks the mythical sunken continent? Jay smiles and says on his Earth it’s above the water, in fact one of his best friends live there. Caitlin sighs and says she’d love to see it. Jay says it’s so beautiful when you arrive you never want to leave. The two lean in to kiss each other, but Dr. Light arrives at that precise moment and sets off another concussive blast, knocking the van on its side and Jay and Caitlin unconscious.

Dr. Light walks into the newspaper office and orders everybody to leave except for Linda. Linda’s editor says that’s not going to happen and Iris says Park’s going with them. Dr. Light says she’s sorry but the only way she can live is by killing Linda. She then produces a small ball of energy that levitates over her palm. Garrick and Snow regain consciousness and race into the office. Dr. Light says to the Earth-Two Flash she thought she took care of him outside.

Jay says to the Meta-Human she’s not a murderer and she says he’s right. However she says it isn’t really murder if you kill your duplicate. The editor tries to intercede but Dr. Light accidentally hits the elderly man in the chest with the ball of energy and he falls to the ground dead. Iris grabs the pistol Joe gave her and fires at Dr. Light knocking off her visor. She slams the floor with both her hands setting off another concussive bomb and she escapes.

Iris takes Linda home while the other four head back to STAR Labs and confer with Wells. He asks what the visor is and they tell him it’s from the Meta-Human, Iris knocked it from her face with a gunshot. Wells says they can find her using that and Ramon asks how does he propose to do that. The scientist looks Cisco dead in the eye and says you’re going to find her with your ability. He then tells the others he’s wearing a Meta-Human detector and he’s known Cisco had abilities since the moment they met.

Ramon explains that he gets visions usually by touching something belonging to the Meta-Human. Wells tells him to touch the visor. Ramon braces for the vision but nothing happens. Wells tells him to try it again and once again Cisco fails. He says he can’t control his powers and Harrison says of course he can he’s just too afraid. He yells at Cisco to man-up and thrusts the visor into his gut. Cisco yells out she’s at the South Plaza Train Station on platform 15.

Flash arrives and finds her and she asks why he won’t leave her alone, he replies she killed an innocent man and she says she needed to kill Linda to make Zoom believe she was dead. She says otherwise she has to kill him. Wells speaks to Flash through the com-device he says he has to run fast enough create a spectrum-mirage multiple-images of himself so she doesn’t know where to blast. He tries it and it works for a bit but she figures it out and just misses him with an energy blast.

Jay Garrick gets on the com-device and gives Barry a win one for the Gipper pep-talk. He says Allen’s faster than he ever was and better than Jay will ever be. He says he can defeat her because he is The Flash. The confidence boost does the job and Barry defeats her and they put her in a Meta-Human cell at STAR Labs.

Barry’s now convinced that Wells’ plan’s the one to follow and he says they’re going to set a trap for Zoom and lure him to Earth-Prime. Jay apologizes but he says he can’t stay in good conscience as he believes Barry’s heading for a date with death. Before he leaves STAR Labs he asks his friends to ask themselves why Wells denied he was responsible for Meta-Humans for two-years and now he’s obsessed with Zoom?

We find out the answer to that in the episode’s final scene as we see Zoom’s holding Wells daughter prisoner in a cell. He taunts the young woman saying her father’s abandoned her. She says he hasn’t and her father’s the smartest man in the world and he’ll soon rescue her and kill Zoom. The speedster says he can’t die, as for she and her father that’s to be determined. We finally get a good look at his mask and Garrick’s correct, it is the stuff of nightmares.

The CW network series “The Flash,” opens its latest episode with a graphic telling us the scene we’re about to watch took place two years ago. We’re on the football field of Central City High School at the end of a victorious game by the home team. One of the player’s stands alone on the field basking in the moment when he’s approached by two of his teammates congratulating him on the victory. One of them on crutches tells the teenager he knew he could do it, but their conversation’s cut short when the team coach throws the game-ball to the young man and says congratulations Jefferson.

As his two teammates head to the locker-room the coach tells the player that the stands were loaded with scouts for collegiate programs. When he scored his touchdown leading to the victory all the scouts grabbed their cellphones, the coach tells his player that he’ll be able to attend any college he wants.

As he walks away the player spikes the pigskin in excitement, but a second later he sees a large explosion across the city. It’s the particle-accelerator exploding and Jefferson watches as a wave of energy approaches the field and he screams to those remaining on the gridiron to run inside the locker-room. He’s about 20-yards from the door when he stops to help his teammate on crutches get inside. As he tries to close the doors he’s hit by a bolt of energy and thrown against a brick-wall. He lies on the floor unconscious as the energy enters his body.

As we return to the present, we join Caitlin, Cisco and Barry in STAR Labs as they try to keep Professor Martin Stein alive. He had a seizure at the end of the previous episode and started emitting flames from his head and his hands as he did when teamed up with Ronnie and became Firestorm. However since Ronnie died closing the Singularity and saving the planet, Stein’s had nobody to bond with and his powers are out of control. Cisco attaches an electronic device to the professor’s chest which stabilizes him. Cisco says this is just a short-term fix as the device will run out of power within a few days.

Caitlin tells Cisco and Barry that she may have found a permanent solution as she’s found two suitable candidates to bond with Stein. Both underwent the same process as Martin and Ronnie did when they got blasted by the particle-accelerator. She says they also both have the same blood-type as the professor, but she’d need another blood test to determine if they’d make suitable physical matches. The Flash takes off and he’s back in seconds with a test-tube of blood from each of the men, he took the samples at super-speed so each thought they got bit by an insect.

Barry runs into Joe’s new partner Patty Spivot and she asks for Barry’s help with a case she’s working on. She gives Allen a plastic bag filled with teeth, she says she believes they’re shark’s teeth as she’s interviewed a bunch of people from a neighborhood who claim to have seen a land-shark. In fact they all said the shark walked on two legs like a man. Barry says he stays away from Meta-Human cases usually but he’ll run some tests for Patty. Joe arrives and greets the pair and asks Patty how her man-shark case’s progressing. Spivot smiles and says Barry’s going to run some tests for her.

Iris sits in Joe’s house looking at pictures of her and her mother before she took off on them. Joe tells Iris he’s very proud that she’s decided to meet with Francine, but we can see by the expression on his daughter’s face that she’s a little creeped out by the situation.

Back at STAR Labs Caitlin says the new blood samples seem to verify her previous information and she believes both men are suitable candidates to converge with Stein and become the new Firestorm. She does however favor one man over the other, he’s Henry Hewitt and he’s a scientist so she thinks he and Stein will have more in common. The other candidate’s Jefferson Jackson the former high school football player we saw earlier and he’s now a car mechanic. Barry says perhaps he’s the better fit as he averaged a 4.0 grade-point average in high school and he’s got an athletic background. Caitlin says she’s going to invite Hewitt to STAR Labs while Martin and Barry go down to the garage that Jackson works at. Cisco says he’s going to keep working on a new stabilizer for the professor and as they scatter we see a figure emerge from the shadows it’s Earth-Two’s Harrison Wells.

Allen and Stein meet Jefferson Jackson at the garage he works at and the first thing he asks them is if they have a car that needs repairing. Barry tells him no, then introduces the two of them telling the mechanic they’re from the Department Of Safety. The mechanic says everybody calls him Jax and asks if the garage’s violated some safety regulations?

Allen smiles and shakes his head and says they want to talk about his encounter with the particle-accelerator. Jax says he refuses to talk about that night as that’s when his dreams went South. He woke up in the hospital with a crushed leg and torn ACL and he could tell by the expression on his mother’s face that his aspirations to play in the NFL had ended.

Barry apologizes for opening up a mental-wound but tells him they’d like to take him to STAR Labs as he thinks they can help him. Jax tells the pair that unless they’ve got a car that needs repair their conversation’s over and tells them to have a nice day.

Francine and Joe are sitting and waiting for Iris to arrive and Francine thanks her former husband for arranging the meeting. Iris walks in shortly later and Francine’s excited to meet her now grown daughter, but Iris looks skeptical. Francine starts saying the speech she likely prepared for months if not years but Iris cuts her off. She says to her mother that she can start by apologizing for abandoning them over 20 years before. The older woman says she’s sorry but Iris has to understand she’s been through a lot.

Iris stops her right there and says to her mother that this might be a good time for Francine to have Iris back in her life, but she never considered whether it was a good time for Iris to have Francine in her life. She says she doesn’t hate Francine, in fact she wishes her the best. However they’ve spent the last 20+ years apart and she’s got no desire to change things and she leaves.

Henry Hewitt meets with Caitlin and Cisco at STAR Labs and he’s strutting like a peacock telling the pair he always knew he was destined for greatness. Barry and Martin walk in and Hewitt immediately starts toadying up to Stein, saying he’s a big fan and he’s read all his papers. Stein’s quite pleased by Hewitt’s flattery and Caitlin tells Barry that Henry wants to converge with the professor. Allen’s a bit taken aback that Caitlin revealed the project to him but she says he’s perfect. Cisco says he’s got an ego bigger than Texas, but other than that he seems fine.

Stein’s informed that Henry’s excited about the merging of the pair into one being and Martin says no time like the present. Cisco gets out a device like the one Ronnie wore and straps it to Henry’s chest, Stein and Hewitt shake hands and some energy passes between them but there’s no convergence. Martin asks him to try again but this time there’s no reaction. Henry asks what that means and Caitlin says they’re not a match.

Hewitt gets belligerent and tells Caitlin that she should be prepared before she builds up somebody’s hopes. Professor Stein assures Hewitt that nobody wanted this to work more than him. Hewitt says he wouldn’t bet on that and storms towards the elevator, we see a small bolt of energy emanating from one of his hands but he’s unaware.

Next scene takes place at Dr. Tina McGee’s facility, as she goes over last-minute instructions with her assistant. Suddenly an alarm sounds in the building and McGee quizzically says applied sciences? She recognizes the man who escapes from one of her labs carrying a weapon and we can hear the shock and disbelief when she says Harrison Wells?

Dr. McGee calls the CCPD and asks them to send Detective Joe West to investigate. Joe and Patty arrive and West introduces Spivot to the doctor, who then said she’d been sorry to hear about Eddie’s death. She then thanks them for coming as she admired his discretion the last time they met, she says this is a very sensitive matter. West knows that he’s investigating a robbery and asked what got taken? McGee says it’s not so much as what got taken as who took it, she says she’s sure the man was Harrison Wells.

Patty says that’s impossible as Wells died, Tina says that’s what she thought and asks Joe if there’s any way he survived? West looks shaken and he tells her that Wells died, no questions about it, McGee says the other strange thing was Wells was walking.

Leaving the facility Spivot says they need to inform Barry as he’d be a huge help on this case and Joe tells her that she’s not to mention this case to Allen. She asks why and West tells her that Wells killed Barry’s mom and he doesn’t want Barry reliving that again. She says she’s a bad liar and Joe says she’d better become a good one. The pair go separate ways when they enter the station and West sees Francine waiting to talk to him.

His patience gone he tells Francine to leave and never come back that she heard their decision. She tells Joe she’s dying of an incurable and her doctor’s say she’ll be fortunate to make it to the end of the year. West looks at his former wife’s face and intuitively realizes she’s telling him the truth. She says she doesn’t want to die without getting to know her daughter and asks him to convey the message to Iris.

Jax arrives unexpectedly at STAR Labs and he’s under the impression they can fix his knee and he can start playing football again. Barry tells him that’s not something they can do, but he can become a superhero and save Stein’s life in the bargain. Jax says he’s not interested in any of that and Caitlin gets ticked off. She says that’s the kind of person he is, he’s allowed one setback to stop him from progressing. She tells him to leave as he’s not worthy of the opportunity, Jax says that’s fine with him and he leaves.

Barry tells her she handled the situation badly and could’ve blown their last opportunity to save Stein. She says she’ll go find Hewitt and bring him back and they’ll find a way to make things out. They’ll all soon realize that utilizing Henry Hewitt’s no longer an option.

Joe and Barry have a father and son conversation starting with West telling Allen that Francine’s dying and now he needs to tell Iris. Then he asks Barry what’s the story with Patty and Barry laughs and says she’s adorable and funny and just about perfect but she’s not Iris. Joe smiles and tells Barry that Iris was his first love and nothing ever replaces that, but you’ve got to go on have the courage to explore new situations and opportunities. The look in Barry’s eyes show that the man who raised him got through to him.

Henry’s sitting at his work station in the lab that he works for when his supervisor walks over and asks Hewitt if he’s finished his project his boss assigned him. Henry says he’ll have it in the morning, the supervisor tells him he said he needed it by tonight and Hewitt says well you’ll have to wait until morning and the lights in the room start to flicker.

Now the supervisor’s angry and he tells Hewitt he may think he’s smarter than everybody else but that doesn’t excuse him from doing his job. He tells the scientist if he pulls this act again he’ll terminate him. Henry starts screaming at the supervisor to get off his back and he’s sick of the way he’s treated. The supervisor’s face reflects his fear as fire’s emanating from his head and hands.

Joe tells Iris that Francine’s dying and the first thing she asks is how can he be sure she’s telling the truth? West tells his daughter that he knows Francine and she’s telling the truth. Joe says that what ever Iris decides he’ll back her decision totally.

The next morning Barry, Stein, Caitlin and Cisco watch a newscaster report a story about some major electrical disturbance at the facility that Hewitt works at and police are searching for Henry to question him. Caitlin says that when they attempted to converge they awakened the dormant gene within him. Cisco says that his history of violence makes him an imminent danger. Caitlin says she didn’t see anything like that in her search and Cisco says his juvenile record got expunged but he hacked into it. Henry’s got quite a few incidents of destruction and assault recorded on the hidden documents.

Martin tells Team-Flash that Hewitt’s not the only one suffering with his abilities and says he needs to lie down. Cisco says he’ll help Stein get there and the professor expresses his thanks. Once they leave Caitlin says this is all her fault that Martin’s dying and she chased away their only chance to save him. Barry basically gives her a shorter version of the speech Joe gave to him, to start thinking outside your ordinary boundaries and it can open up a new world for you.

Caitlin heads down to the garage to talk to Jax and the first thing she does is apologize and says she should never have talked to him the way she had. She says she just got frustrated that Jax failed to realize the life-changing opportunity he turned down. She says that her husband and Martin teamed up as Firestorm and Jax asks the guy who flew into the hole? She smiles and says yes and says he died during that incident, but she says she couldn’t stop him and looking back at it she realizes he’d have been miserable if she had.

Henry Hewitt’s tracked her down and arrives at the garage, he says she did this to him and it’s nothing like she promised. He starts to go after her but Jax tries to stop him and Hewitt tosses him against a wall. He then starts going after Caitlin again but Jax quickly recovers and chucks a metal car-part against the back of Hewitt’s head knocking him out. Snow grabs Jax by the arm and they jump into her car, he asks where they’re going and she tells him STAR Labs.

Iris and Francine meet and Iris tells her mother that she really thought Francine made up that she’s dying but Iris checked it out and confirmed it. She says she hoped that could get her to forgive Francine and allow them to have a relationship but she says she found out that Francine’s still lying and keeping secrets.

Iris tells Francine she’s an investigative reporter and she did some digging on Francine and found out that she gave birth to a boy eight months after she left them. She asks if the boy’s Joe’s and her brother and then says she doesn’t want to know. If Joe found out he had a son that grew to manhood without him knowing about him it would kill him. She tells Francine to never contact them again and leaves.

We’re aware that the character Wally West will get introduced at some point this season. Is Francine’s son Wally West? Wally got introduced to the DC Comics Silver-Age as Iris’ nephew but it’s not much of a stretch of Wally being her brother in this retelling of the tale.

Jax and Caitlin walk into STAR Labs and Cisco tells him that Stein’s dying he’s got a fever of 142 degrees and it’s still rising. Jax says he’ll do it he’ll converge with the professor. Barry asks him if he’s sure and Jax smiles and says his coach used to say in football you leave yourself and enter the team.

Caitlin and Cisco get Martin and tell him that Jax has agreed to converge with him, they help him over and then Cisco puts the electronic device on Jax’s chest. He asks what he needs to do and Stein says they just need to touch however the match’s so perfect that just getting close to each other sets off the convergence. Jax’s eyes turn white and energy emanates from his body. Caitlin asks if Stein’s with him and he says he’s unsure and asks how to check, but we hear Martin’s voice reassuring him he’s with him. Firestorm’s reborn.

He asks when’s their first assignment and Cisco asks if he feels up to taking on one now? He tells Firestorm that Hewitt’s charging himself on the Central City High School football field, he fails to notice that Barry’s slipped off to go there as the Flash. Jax says that’s where he got zapped by the particle-accelerator and Firestorm flies off.

Flash tells Cisco to cut off all the power to the football field so Henry’s power-source get’s cut off. Firestorm arrives at the field and goes after Hewitt but Henry tosses him into the stands. We hear Martin’s voice telling Jax to focus to utilize his athletic ability and the discipline he learned on the gridiron.

Flash tells Caitlin that it seems the angrier Hewitt gets the more powerful he becomes and she says that’s how we defeat him by getting him so angry he blows his circuit. Flash asks Jax if he’s alright and he responds that he’s a quarterback and he can take a hit. Flash smiles and asks him if he’s up for playing a game of you can’t catch me?

Flash darts all over the field at super-speed taunting Hewitt and Henry’s frustration keeps getting greater. He hurls energy bolts at Flash and Firestorm he misses Flash but Firestorm blasts back at him stopping the energy in midstream. He flies over to Henry and hits him with a right to the chin knocking him out and causing Hewitt to pop his circuit and his energy vanishes.

Hewitt’s powers are permanently disabled and Flash says they’ll keep him in the tunnel until he forgets about STAR Labs. Martin says this is goodbye for a while for Jax and he as they’re heading for Pittsburgh to study with a women that helped train Ronnie and him. He says they had a lot of unexplored territory to learn. They converge and fly off and Jax lets out a whoop to express his excitement.

Flash stands outside of CC Jitters and watches Patty inside and he starts smiling and the smile gets bigger until he feels a hand around his neck and pulls him off the ground. He turns to see it’s the man-shark standing in two-legs and likely 14 feet tall. He growls at Flash he’s going to kill him when Spivot runs out of the coffee-shop and tells the creature to release Flash. She empties her service revolver into the creature but he feels nothing. He tosses Flash aside like a rag-doll and grins as he advances on Patty. Suddenly a blast of energy hits him in the back and destroys the creature, when he hits the ground Flash sees a man in a hoodie holding a weapon but he runs away. Flash quickly overtakes him and pulls off the hood revealing the man’s Earth-Two’s Harrison Wells.